Nebraska Police Owe A Stripper $1 Million

A federal judge had ordered Nebraska police to return $1 million
to an exotic dancer after state troopers confiscated it during a
traffic stop,
ABC News reports.

Nebraska state troopers got the cash in March 2012, when they
pulled over Tara Mishra's two friends driving to Chicago with the
money. The three wanted to buy a nightclub there.

Mishra, 33, began dancing at 18, and had saved since then to
start her own business, Judge Joseph Bataillon wrote in his
opinion.

When her friends agreed to let the state troopers search the car,
police suspected drug involvement. Mishra had bundled the money
into $10,000 increments and put them in plastic bags in the
trunk. Police seized the cash and took her friends into custody.

The police didn't find any evidence of drug activity in the
vehicle, and K-9 analysis found only trace elements of illegal
drugs on the cash, ABC News reported.

In his opinion, Bataillon found that "the government failed to
show a substantial connection between drugs and the money." He
ruled that Mishra receive all of her $1,074,000 — with interest.

George Washington University law professor
Jonathon Turley's most recent blog entry claims that behavior
like this falls in line with an increasing trend called "policing
for profit." Authorities will conduct a drug stop on "pretextual
grounds," like speeding, and then confiscate any money the driver
can't explain to their satisfaction.

According to the
Institute for Justice, police can legally use the money, or
profits from selling any other confiscated property, to fund
their agencies. So-called civil forfeiture doesn't require the
police to charge owners before confiscating their property.